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In this special retrofit issue we launch our new RetroFirst campaign championing reuse in the built environment. We also announce the winners of the AJ Retrofit Awards 2019 covering 18 different categories; as well as building studies of two retrofit projects: Orms’ conversion of council offices into a hotel in Camden, north London; and Flower Michelin Architects’ Shingle House renovation and extension of a seaside ...

London-based practice Emergent Design Studios has revealed proposals for a £7.5 million retirement homes development in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico

The 8,500m² project will provide 100 flats for the elderly in the city, which was voted Condé Nast Traveller’s Best City in the World in 2013.

It is the Clerkenwell firm’s second major project in the country in partnership with local firm RVdG, having won a competition for the High School campus at The JFK American School Queretaro north of Mexico City earlier this year (pictured bottom)

Emergent Design Studios founder and former Rafael Viñoly director Marco Ortiz said: ‘Homes for the elderly in Mexico remain formulaic and under-designed – this even includes the high-end offer supplied to discerning locals and American expats.

‘From its inception, we have seen this project’s potential as twofold: as an opportunity to export British know-how and standards into this booming region; and also as a chance to rescue traditional Mexican craftsmanship and materials used innovatively to build a world-class senior community facility.’

Ortiz added that the design was intended to create a ‘strong community fabric’.

Work is expected to start on site in summer 2017.

In July, the practice completed an £850,000 extension and conversion of a Victorian Lion House within a long terrace in Fulham, west London.

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